La Pergola, Lac de Chalain, Jura, France

We're not really used to the bells-and-whistles style French campsite so when we arrived here after a week in a quiet Alpine site we were a bit taken aback.

We had a fantastic week, however. The site was busy (it was August) but never felt too busy. The kids (3 and 6) loved the pools and the beach by the lake and the 6 year old really enjoyed the early mini-disco (she now knows the French version of Agadou!).

The shop is very well-stocked and not overly expensive. The showers and washing facilities are good. There is entertainment in the evening (music, magic show, dancing), which we could hear from our camper van, but it wasn't intrusive and seemed very 'French'(!)

There are kids clubs run by the English tour operators, but as we weren't with one, my daughter went to the free club run by the site staff for a morning. She had a great time and made friends with a couple of other English girls. Most of the children were French but the staff spoke enough English to communicate with the Dutch and English kids.

We'd definitely go back here. It's a lovely site in a beautiful area--great for siteseeing locally, or equally great if you want a few days chilling in the sun by some water.

This place is just beautiful. Nestled on the tree-lined edge of the most gorgeous lake in the Jura mountains (eastern France, almost in Switzerland), la Pergola is a smallish campsite that's perfect for a properly active family holiday.

The pitches run in rows up a steepish embankment. We had a Canvas Holidays mobile home right at the top, which meant heading home after a day out and about was a bit of a thigh-toning hike but running down the hill for croissants in the morning was hilarious fun! After the first day, we all hired bikes and our boys spend hours happily riding around, savouring the freedom to roam they rarely get on the London streets back home.

The site shop was well stocked (including stacks of Speedos for the stupid Brit boys who aren't wise to the standard French-swimming-pool veto on baggy trunks!) and the restaurant and snack bar looked decent, although we stuck to self-catering, with the odd venture off-site to a restaurant in a nearby village (thumbs up to La Sarrazine in Doucier, in particular).

We were there right at the end of the season so the site's activities programme was winding down but we had a go at the archery and canoeing, and we loved the pools and outdoor activities area with table tennis tables, a trampoline and pitches for football and boules. The lake was startlingly clean and a real pleasure to swim in, with a nice sandy beach, and you could hire pedalos with slides on for whizzy dips right out in the middle!

Our best idea by far, though, was to take our hired bikes for a cycle through the sun-dapppled woodland that circled right round the lake. It took us most of the morning (factor in the dodgy map-reading, the silly races, the slower smaller boy and the assorted gasps at the view) but halfway round is the bigger campsite at Domaine du Chalain, where we stopped for drinks, and at then end we celebrated with mountains of crepes and ice cream at a great local cafe called Le Pic Vert. We all had such a good time, we did it again the next day!

Should you want to venture further off-site, we'd recommend the Cascades du Hérisson - a beautiful set of waterfalls you can climb up to see at close-quarters (take trainers). We also had a peek at the salt mines at Salins les Bains (fascinating stuff but the full tour in French is perhaps too much for all but the most nerdy kids) and took the spectacularly vertiginous train ride on the Ligne des Hirondelles from Campagnole to St Claude (the pipe-making capital of France, no less!)

All in all, a fantastic holiday in a underrated and breathtakingly beautiful part of France. Even the cold end-of-season evenings were fun as we hunkered round the fire in our mobile home and rediscovered the fun of playing card games together. We'd go again like a shot!

We had a 2-bedroom mobile home on this site - great facilities for the children (swimming pools, lake, play grounds) and well-designed to make it easy for us too - bar, grill, pizza, cafe, well-stocked shop. Lots of things to do all around, although the roads are a bit windy and slow. Not far from the great wines of Burgundy!